


Some Things are Meant to Be

by Sparksrise



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:55:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22417318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sparksrise/pseuds/Sparksrise
Summary: It's believed that you can learn a lot about someone from how their abilities manifest. Blake wasn’t so sure she bought into that, she didn’t like the idea that her ability defined her, especially since she still barely understood it. She has always seen her ability as something that kept her stuck in her past, until it directed her towards her future.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, Bumbleby - Relationship
Comments: 62
Kudos: 200





	1. Chapter 1

Many people believed that a person’s ability could tell you a lot about them, about their personality as well as their destiny. Blake wasn’t so sure she bought into that, she didn’t like the idea that her ability defined her, especially since she still barely understood it. Was she destined to always be looking backwards? Trapped in a past she couldn’t change, cursed to just watch, again and again and again. Gods she hoped there was more to it than that. Her ability had good sides too of course, she got to revisit her best days as well as her worst. But she was still only ever able to look _back_.

With her 22nd birthday only days away it was nearly six years since she first discovered what she could do. She liked to think that in the years since then she has learned to master it, but understanding it? On that front she felt like she hadn’t made much progress at all.

It was her sixteenth birthday when she discovered what she could do. It was the first time in years that she had spent a birthday at home or had even seen her parents for. The first one since she had finally left some things behind her that definitely needed to stay there. Despite her parents’ best efforts, they didn’t do much to celebrate that year, Blake didn’t have the energy for it all and was certainly not ready to see anyone outside of her family just yet. Sun and Ilia, her two best friends who at that point she hadn’t talked to in weeks, didn’t even know she was home yet.

So, she spent most of the day going through some of her old stuff, eventually leading to an old photo album. She stumbled across a photo from three years ago, another birthday when she was surrounded by friends and family as she took an unnecessarily big breath to blow out the candles on her cake. Her mom wasn’t in the photo because she was the one who had taken it. She wanted nothing more than to relive that moment then, to feel what she’d felt, to hear the laugh her mother let out because of Blake’s face as she took in a huge breath.

And then it happened. She nearly dropped the photo as it began to heat in her hands, but something made her hold on tighter. Electricity began to move across the picture and spread from where the tips of her fingers came into contact with it all the way up her arm and across her chest until it engulfed her. It didn’t hurt, not really, but it was definitely uncomfortable. It only lasted a moment and then she was _there_.

_Suddenly surrounded by singing and laughter, the tightness that had been building in her chest as she looked at the old photo was replaced with a lightness she hadn’t felt in far too long. When she looked up, she saw her mother practically in tears laughing, she had to put the camera down on the table before she dropped it and her laugh was louder than anyone else’s. She wasn’t in control, she couldn’t move or focus on her mother as much as she wanted, she relived the memory exactly as it had been, she could even feel how her face hurt from laughing. It only lasted a few moments, by the time they had all settled a little and were about to cut the cake she felt a pull. It was like someone was lightly tugging on the other end of a leash and she let it guide her back to the present._

Eventually she figured out that she could only do that with objects that elicited strong emotions, had important memories attached and had been present during or near the time the memory took place. She learned the hard way that getting pictures developed the next day was useless and was very grateful that her father had made a habit of printing out photos the evening of important days. So, she bought a polaroid camera for herself when she could and started making a habit of collecting trinkets whenever she thought of it.

Over the years her ability helped her to gain clarity on a lot of things, when she was finally able to look back and see them as they actually were, hindsight is always 20/20 and all that. She could never shake the feeling that they were going to lead to something _else_ …something just as important as what her abilities had already made possible.

“Okay birthday girl get your ass down here! The best friend to ever exist is here with the best present in the world.”

Sun’s voice startled Blake enough to nearly make her fall out of her chair. She hadn’t been expecting him but her and her parents were used to him showing up on a whim, and sometimes helping himself to the contents of their fridge. She rushed to swap her pyjamas for clothes that she could be seen wearing in public as she heard Sun coming up the stairs. By the time he knocked on her bedroom door she was brushing her hair and pretending that she hadn’t been in her pyjamas reading at her desk and procrastinating actually planning her birthday celebrations like he, Ilia and her parents kept insisting she should.

“Come in Sun, it’s safe.”

Sun swung her door open and strode across to her bed, lying down with his hands behind his head and a wearing a far too smug grin.

“Hello to you too.” Blake said, rolling her eyes as she pushed his feet off of her bed.

“Guess who has the best early birthday present ever, like statue worthy.”

“I’m guessing the guy who barged into my house and announced it to the entire household.”

Sun grinned like he was a child in the world’s largest sweet shop. He stayed laying on her bed but without even moving his hands from behind his head he removed a small envelope from his shirt pocket and it slowly floated towards Blake, doing a little loop before landing in her outstretched hand. 

Blake took the envelope, raising an eye at how ridiculously over the top Sun was being, not that it was out of character or anything. He often used his telekinesis for trivial things and pranks. Her eyes widened as she read the piece of paper in her hands.

“So, you _do_ actually pay attention when I talk!” Blake exclaimed, bouncing slightly on the spot.

She was holding two tickets to an exhibit that had just opened in the national history museum an, exhibit she had been looking forward to for _months_.

“Of course I pay attention, the information is always stored for future reference.”

“Mhm, and it definitely has nothing to do with the fact that you have to pass by the national history museum every day on your way to and from work?”

“If we don’t hurry, we will be waiting in a line for most of the day Blake come on!” Sun said, choosing to dodge Blake’s accusation. “Ilia is meeting us there and said she’d kill me if we made her stand outside a museum alone for more than ten seconds.”

“I know you two don’t really have an interest in this Sun, you don’t have to go with me you know.”

“See that’s the best part! It’s a two in one gift now, the tickets and my presence!” Sun said dramatically as he led the way out of her room and down the stairs. “But only for today, those passes are good for a week. You know we love you Blake, but we will not be doing this more than once.”

Blake laughed at that, she appreciated that they were making an effort to be a part of things they knew she cared about. She definitely couldn’t blame them for only going once though, even if, to her, the thought of being able to go as much as she wanted seemed more exciting than any birthday plans that she had been pondering. It was focused mostly on literature, specifically from writers who were never published or could only publish if they used an alias. So many forbidden stories being told from people who, if they lived today, would probably be critically acclaimed.

Blake grabbed her jacket as they left and sent a quick message to her parents to tell them she would be home for dinner so they weren’t looking for her when they got back. Menagerie was a small town and the surprising lack of humidity lead them to deciding to walk. Hopefully Ilia would know better than to think Blake and Sun would actually be on time and wouldn’t be waiting long for them. Sun immediately started talking about her birthday as they headed off.

“Thanks for letting me invite Weiss by the way. I’m really excited for you to start getting to know her better. I know your first impression of her wasn’t exactly stellar but believe me, she’s a lot more than meets the eye.”

Blake only nodded in agreement. She hadn’t _disliked_ Weiss when they had finally met. They just hadn’t quite hit it off. She had a feeling they both just needed time to warm up to each other.

“She asked if she could bring a friend if that’s cool with you? And I think her friend’s cousin or sister or something. She just moved back into town recently, went to college in a different city.”

“That’s fine, the more the merrier. As of right now though there still isn’t really anything to invite them _to.”_

“A problem we shall have fixed by the end of the day I assure you. You wanted something pretty low key, right?”

“As low key as possible” Blake agreed.

“Okay we can work with that.” Sun said, walking slightly faster with both of his hands behind his head as he considered.

“What if we just have a movie night? Oh! We could even watch a series or something, order take out, have an obscene amount of snacks. Everyone gets to actually talk then too. Or we just go to Junior’s, he has pool and a few arcade games, plus drinks for whoever wants them.”

Blake considered for a minute. Honestly, she would be very happy with a movie night in. Ignoring the occasion altogether also sounded good to her right now. But she needed to move past previous birthdays that still carried not so festive memories.

“How about we go to juniors the night of my birthday then Saturday evening we finally get through that series you’ve been harassing me to watch for weeks. The one about the badass female warriors you never shut up about.”

“That sounds perfect! I’m telling you, once you watch it, you’ll understand and there’s no going back after that.”

“Sounds like we finally have a plan then, my parents can finally stop “subtly” reminding me.”

They got to the museum a few minutes later, Blake was relieved to see Ilia just getting to the main entrance of the museum as they arrived.

“Perfect timing.” Sun said as he mussed up Ilia’s hair, earning a glare from her.

“Like I’d ever show up at the agreed time when you two are involved.”

“That…is probably fair.” Blake admitted.

“Well come on, let’s get this over wi – I mean…let’s go enjoy literature and ugh culture and stuff.” Sun said as he spun around and headed for the door.

Blake had been to the museum enough times that she could probably recite some of the information plaques by heart so they bypassed all of the usual exhibits and headed straight for the area Blake knew had been cornered off for over a month as they set up everything. She was sure Ilia and Sun would appreciate that she wasn’t meandering through and reading everything like she usually did. Today she was only focused on the lost writers exhibit.

“Oh! I almost forgot.” Sun said as thy rounded the last corner. He started rummaging in his satchel bag for a moment before continuing. “I meant to give this to you at your house but in case I forget again, here!”

He extended a book towards her, she didn’t recognise it at first, it looked like a well-loved book, slightly faded with a very cracked spine but none of the pages were dog eared. She took it and when she read the cover, she was so excited she nearly dropped the book.

“You found it!” 

“Yeah but its borrowed. Ruby’s friend or something, it’s her favourite book so it’s definitely a temporary loan.”

“Like she won’t have it read three times before her birthday.” Ilia said as she walked a little ahead admiring some of the paintings.

Blake wandered with the book clutched in her hands, practically hugging it as she read as many placards and scraps of writing notes as she could. It was a collection of Greek myths she had been looking for for _weeks._ If this was the how her birthday week started, she couldn’t wait to see how it ended.

After about an hour Blake noticed that Ilia was still a bit behind her and Sun. She had stopped at a small painting and looked like she had been staring at it for a while. She looked around just as Blake started towards her and began waving frantically for her to hurry up.

“I didn’t think you were that into art.” Blake said as she reached her friend.

“Don’t go getting your hopes up, spending too much time here has not converted me or anything. But, don’t you think that girl looks like you?”

Blake raised a sceptical eyebrow at Ilia, but her friend’s eyes were still trained on the small painting on front of them. Blake remembered reading an article once that if your own clone stood on front of you, you probably wouldn’t recognise yourself. We see ourselves so differently compared to how others see us, but she had to admit she saw _some_ similarities. The girl in the painting had long black hair like Blake used to up until about two years ago and the colour was faded but they eyes kind of looked like a similar colour?

Her attention was quickly drawn to the other woman in the portrait though. She was beautiful, long blond hair, a wide smile and eyes that almost looked lilac. It felt like a weird sense of Déjà vu. She knew she had never met that woman before, but she still felt so familiar. Surely if they had ever met Blake would remember, she didn’t seem like a woman that was easily forgotten. The plaque next to the two women just said, “A lost writer (believed to be alias) and her closest friend.” It seemed so... _gal pals_ that Blake couldn’t help but roll her eyes.

“Not seeing the similarities?” Ilia asked, finally looking away from the painting to see Blake’s reaction.

“I’m undecided. It’s a nice painting though, and if that _is_ a version of me, quite complimentary.”

“You never know, could be a long lost relative.”

“Or a blurry painting.”

“Or that, you ready to grab some lunch?”

Blake nodded and followed Ilia back towards the main entrance, dragging Sun along when they found him sitting in an alcove.

As her friends had expected Blake went back to the museum, it was day three of her new obsession and she was already planning her return visit tomorrow. Every time she passed that painting, she paused, there was _something_ about it. Like she had seen it before and when she looked at it she felt like she was desperately trying to remember something important but just as the thought was about to solidify it disappeared again.

She knew her abilities usually worked on things she had strong connections to, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that if she just touched it, something would happen. Blake looked around quickly, it was close to closing so the area she was in was empty and the only security guard had already passed through here just a few moments ago. Before she could talk herself out of it Blake reached over and quickly placed her hand on the frame of the painting.

“I knew this was dumb.” She murmured under her breath.

Just as she started to pull her hand away, she felt it. The slight heat and a spark of electricity. Her eyes widened and she could feel her heartrate rising rapidly. She glanced around again to make sure no one was watching and when she turned back to the portrait she closed her eyes and focused on it, imagining being pulled into it, she felt the electricity flow around her whole body before she felt that familiar pull.

_When she opened her eyes again, she was no longer standing in the museum. Instead she was sitting in a large, well lit room on a couch with far too many cushions. On front of her was a small grey-haired man who seemed incredibly focused on the easel before on front of him. He glanced up at her quickly before returning his gaze to his canvas._

_“Are you alright?”_

_The voice startled her, and she jumped slightly as she turned to look at the woman beside her. She felt a light reassuring squeeze on her hand as the other woman smiled at her and she fet herself smile back. She was sure this was the same blond-haired woman from the painting. None of this made sense. It looked like they were in some sort of manor based on the extravagant décor but she knew that she had never been to a place like this before._

_She felt a fondness for the other woman that was nearly overwhelming especially since she still had no idea who she was. She looked down at their joined hands and saw that the other woman was wearing a ring. A simple gold band with delicate swirls engraved into it. She knew that she had given it to her, she didn’t know how she knew that, but she felt it. Then she noticed her own hand adorned with a ring that was clearly an engagement ring. It felt wrong, like it was far heavier than it ought to be. It felt wrong that she was wearing it and the woman beside her hadn’t been the one to give it to her. She felt an ache in her chest as her stomach sank with a disappointment that was not hers._

_“I’m fine thank you. Just daydreaming is all.” She heard herself say._

_“More like brooding, come on it’s your first portrait! Enjoy it. I bet it could be worth a lot one day.”_

_“Now who’s daydreaming?”_

_She wanted to know more, needed to know how this was even possible but she felt that familiar tug at the back of her mind and knew her time was up._

She pulled her hand away from the painting quickly and turned on her heel, ready to leave as quickly as possible. She brushed a tear away from her eye as she hurried towards the exit.

A significant portion of the evening was passed pacing in her bedroom. Her mind was reeling, and she felt like she was losing it. What happened should not have been possible. She had spent the last few years working hard on her abilities, she thought she had at least figured out how they worked and their limitations. But what happened today made her question everything.

“Uuugh, why couldn’t I just ignore it and move on.” Blake groaned as she fell onto her bed.

She reached for her pillow, intending to bury her face in it and block out the world if only for a moment but her eyes landed on the book sitting on her nightstand. Her obsession with the museum exhibit had made her completely forget about it these last couple days. She grabbed it and settled in to finally start it, hoping it could get her mind off of everything else. She couldn’t help but smile as she thumbed through the pages.

The previous owner clearly loved dearly, there were notes scribbled in some of the margins and a few paragraphs had been highlighted in a yellow that was starting to fade. Some of the notes made her laugh, they poked fun at the characters and how stupid some of their decisions were. She was caught off guard anytime the notes were more serious, outlining parallels and noting a character’s struggle. It was like getting to talk to a friend while she read, especially when some of the notes were voicing her own thoughts. It was the perfect distraction for a while, until inevitably her mind began to wander back to the museum and what had happened earlier. She didn’t realise what was happening on time to stop it. The usually feeling of electricity was already coursing through her veins and she felt that pull again before everything around her shifted.

_All at once she was standing outside in yet another place she was sure she had never been to before. She was walking along a stone path, the sun beating down and the sky completely cloudless, it looked like a painting, too perfect to be real. She couldn’t control where she was looking but she was flanked by two people holding spears and…togas? Blake was sure she must have fallen asleep while reading too much about Greek mythology, that had to be the explanation. She looked towards a nearby marketplace that looked like it was busier than any she had ever seen. She didn’t have time to take it all in before she came to an abrupt stop._

_She hadn’t been watching where she was going, and she bumped into the woman on front of her who seemed to be some kind of guard. She nearly fell over, but the woman spun around jus on time to grab her. She was glad that whoever’s head she was in they were at least able to respond because gods she would not have gotten two words out. She looked up into lilac eyes that were starting to get far too familiar and she felt her heart skip._

_“Miss are you okay?” She asked. A look of true concern on her face as she steadied Blake on her feet._

_She smiled and leaned in slightly so the other guards wouldn’t hear as she said, “Taking any chance you can get these days.”_

_The guard’s cheeks coloured as she straightened up and awkwardly rubbed at the back of her neck. “I uhm – glad you’re okay miss.”_

_She whipped back around and began walking again but after a moment when she seemed to have collected herself and she shot Blake a wink as they turned a corner. She smiled widely and felt her own cheeks tint slightly as she started to feel the tug at the back of her mind telling her that whatever this was had to come to an abrupt end._

She was sitting in the exactly where she had been, her book still in her lap and still sitting upright on her bed. So, she hadn’t dozed off…but those weren’t _her_ memories either. She glared at the book in her hands, sure it couldn’t be a complete coincidence that she had been reading a collection of ancient Greek myths. She wanted to talk to someone about it, but if she couldn’t make sense of it there was no way she could explain it to someone else. If she could just figure out what it all _meant_ , maybe it would stop happening, or she could at least find a way to control it.

The one thing the two memories had in common was that woman. Blake knew one thing for sure, whoever’s memories she was seeing, she was in love with her. She felt it in each memory, and it was as clear as the colour of the sky. She had never felt anything like it before, she remembered a time when she had thought she’d found it but that turned out to be just another lie.

She grabbed her notebook and started writing. She noted everything she remembered from each memory, every little detail, hoping that it might help or at least provide some sort of clue. After an hour she had completely run out of anything new to jot down, it was so _frustrating_. She moved to her desk and sat staring at her notes for a few minutes, willing her brain to provide an answer. Eventually she started doodling out of habit but that soon turned into a detailed sketch. It was of the guard from the second memory, specifically when she had winked back at her.

“Ugh, I’m done. This is turning to full blown obsession. With a girl that probably doesn’t even _exist_.” Blake murmured to herself as she stood up, nearly knocking over her desk chair.

She changed quickly and settled into bed, knowing already that sleep would not come easily but determined to push everything to the back of her mind until morning. When she did eventually doze off her dreams were surrounded by yellow, lilac and sunflowers.

“Blake, sweetie are you awake?” Her mother called from just outside her door.

“I am now.” She replied, stifling a yawn.

Her mother came in looking far too excited for 7am.

“First of all, happy birthday honey. I hope I got the first one!”

“It is dawn, of course you got the first one mom.”

“Good, I missed being the first to give you your first gift since your friends bet me to it.”

Her mother came in and sat at the end of her bed, it was only after Blake tried to rub the sleep from her eyes for a third time that she noticed the little box in her mother’s lap. It was wooden and looked delicate with an intricate carving of a belladonna that swirled around the edges.

“My mother gave this to me on my twenty-second birthday. She told me that it had been a part of our family for generations, even her mother wasn’t sure for how long. It’s tied to some incredible stories, some beautiful and some tragically so. When my mother gave it to me, she said that she wished every happiness for me and that I would find what I was looking for in life. And that is something I would like to pass onto you, I know I found everything I could have hoped for, and I know you will too.”

Blake wiped a stay tear from her eye, hoping that her mother hadn’t noticed and choosing to blame the early hour. She moved to sit beside her mother as she opened the box for her. Her breath caught in her throat as her still blurry vision focused in on what she was holding. It was a ring, _the_ ring. The one that the blonde-haired woman had been wearing yesterday, the ring she somehow knew _she_ had given her. It was a gold band and had the same beautiful design engraved that she remembered.

“Have- have you shown this to me before?” Blake asked cautiously, she wasn’t even sure what she wanted her mom to say. If she had seen it before maybe she could convince herself that was why she had been seeing these weird memories, hallucinations, _whatever_ the hell they were.

“Possibly, I used to wear it all the time but I was always a little worried about losing it so I’ve mostly kept it safe.”

Blake nodded. Her mom passed the box to her and smiled, if she told her she had seen it before, that she had seen someone else wearing it, it would make no sense, it _made no sense_.

“Thanks mom, I love it. I’ll take good care of it.”

Kali beamed at that, “I know you will honey,” she said as she stood to leave, “and I know it will take good care of you too.”

Blake was so caught up in her own thoughts that her mom’s words didn’t even register until Kali was already gone. She didn’t have the headspace to even think about what she had meant.

“Okay,” She said to herself. “New day, clearer head.”

Blake got ready while listening to her music and mentally preparing for the party later. Trying very hard to pretend her eyes were not constantly being drawn to her sketch from the night before. It didn’t really capture her, it wasn’t as radiant and Blake was pretty sure that shade of lilac didn’t exist anywhere else. Before she could over think it she scooped up the ring from where she had left it on her dresser and sat at her desk.

“Okay, I’m listening. What the hell is going on.”

She was done trying to forget about it or pretend it hadn’t happened. She was going to figure this thing out. If her abilities really were trying to tell her something, she just hoped it was finally something good and not another fleeting moment she could never really have back or something she would struggle to move past again. She gently took the ring out of its box and put it on, surprised to find how well it fit. She felt ridiculous but she closed her eyes and focused her mind on the ring. As she had expected and if she was honest with herself, feared, she felt the ring warm gradually and before she could second guess herself, she was there.

_The first thing she noticed was the music. It was blaring and unfamiliar, it looked like she was in the middle of a night club. It was crowded and warm. Again, a place she did not remember ever setting foot in but this one did feel a little more familiar than the last two at least. Like a half-remembered dream._

_“Blake!” Blake spun around to find the person who was calling her, a voice she knew she would recognise anywhere. She smiled as she came into view, no longer surprised that it was her again, all smiles and dishevelled blond hair._

_“I was looking for you, I think I managed to ditch Neon for a bit, that girl would not let me out of her sight and if she made one more top heavy joke there was going to be a Neon shaped hole in that wall.”_

_Blake giggled, she felt light. And she had a feeling that this version of her was unaccustomed to it as she was. Her heart stuttered as the other woman took her hand and tugged it lightly guiding her to the dance floor, “Care to dance Belladonna?”_

_“With such a chivalrous partner how could I refuse?” She heard herself reply as she did a very unsteady curtsey that made her partner laugh._

_“Let’s see if you’re as light on your feet on the dance floor as you are in a fight then.”_

_She most assuredly was not. But it didn’t matter. They danced anyway, laughing every time Blake messed up or her partner showed off or they ducked to hide from a very vibrantly dressed girl she was pretty sure was wearing roller skates._

_“You look amazing by the way, did I mention that yet?”_

_“No, but proud of you for actually saying it and you know not just staring.”_

_“Hey! I was caught off guard! The new look suits you. And besides,” She continued, leaning in closer, “it’s not like I could ever keep my eyes off you anyway, so I was bound to get caught eventually.”_

_That made Blake roll her eyes, but she was smiling and even though they were already in a crowded and stuffy room she still felt her cheeks heat a little._

_“So, you can be smooth when you want to be.”_

_“Don’t worry, I reserve it for you and you alone.” Her partner reassured her, moving in slightly closer and placing her hands on her hips as they danced._

_Blake felt herself push up a little to meet her, finally she had found a version of these memories where they actually got to admit their feelings, finally got to be together in some reality._

_Just as the thought crossed her mind the lights in the club went out all at once and the music was cut off. She was only an inch from meeting the other woman’s lips with her own, but they jumped apart a little as the music was replaced by a blaring siren and red warning lights flashed above their heads. So close, but of course nothing could be that simple._

_“Gods damn it, hold onto that thought. We have some work to do.” Her partner said, glaring at the emergency lights like they had done her a great personal wrong._

_Just as they turned towards the nearest exit, she felt the edges of her vison blur and the room around her faded as she was tugged back to her quiet and empty bedroom._

She sat for a few minutes. Vaguely aware of the fact that she was still smiling, and her heart was seconds from beating out of her chest. It was one of the few times she had felt _this_ happy after using her abilities. Something she felt she had been ignoring for far too long. She had jumpers with tears in them, trinkets from early dates and gifts that always came with apologies coated in blame. Boxes of it sat in her closet after years of telling herself she would get rid of them tomorrow. Whenever she did take them out it lead to revisiting a past she couldn’t change, wishing her younger self had seen the warning signs sooner, had seen past every mask he wore and every lie he told, no matter how many times she revisited those days she couldn’t change what had happened, but some things she _could_ change.

Blake spent the hours between the morning and actually celebrating her birthday at Juniors cleaning, and she had never been so happy to take the black bags she had filled with hidden history to the nearest dumpster. It felt like finally putting down a weight she had forgotten she was carrying, maybe moving forward would be easier without those shackles she had allowed herself to ignore.

She had dinner with her parents as planned, tidied her room that now looked like a bomb had hit it and by the time she was finished showering and choosing what to wear it was time to got meet her friends. She had been unsure about their plans, but she couldn’t wait to see everyone now. Before she flicked off her light she hesitated, deciding to slip on her new ring before leaving.

A few of her friends were already gathered in a booth at the back of the bar and they all got their turn to wish her a happy birthday and give her a hug.

“There you are! Did you lose your phone or something? We couldn’t reach you all day.” Sun said as he threw an arm over her shoulder and pulled her into a picture with Ilia.

“No sorry I was just busy, had some things that needed taking care of.”

Sun raised an eyebrow at her but let it drop when she didn’t offer any more details.

“Blake!”

Blake turned to see Ruby Rose rushing over, she had only met her in passing a couple times, but she continued to be amazed by the girl’s constant excitement, like she was always on a sugar high. From what Weiss had told them, it was quite possible. Weiss had told her once that Ruby had teleportation abilities that she discovered pretty young and used to steal cookies whenever no one was in the kitchen.

“Happy birthday Blake! Hope we’re not late. Weiss took _forever_ to get ready.”

“I too a perfectly reasonable amount of time thank you.” Weiss said as she passed Ruby and went to hug Blake.

Weiss looked at Sun, seeming to be inspecting his outfit. “I think this is only my second time seeing you in a fully buttoned shirt.”

“Missing the abs already?” Sun asked, “I thought you’d be happy to know I have at least two formal shirts. I can rip the sleeves off this one or something if it helps” 

Weiss rolled her eyes but smiled as she went to hook her arm around his and head towards the table to greet their other friends.

Weiss said something Blake was sure was a sarcastic retort, but she didn’t hear it. Her attention was on the person who was coming up behind them. She took off her aviators as she stepped into the bar and twirled her car keys on her finger before stuffing them into the pocket of her jacket. Her blond hair was just as untamed as Blake remembered and she knew before she even looked that she would find bright lilac eyes looking back at her. She walked right up to them and leaned on Ruby’s shoulder.

“Hi, I’m Yang. I’m Ruby’s older sister.” She said, extending her hand towards Blake.

Blake hoped she didn’t look as shellshocked as she felt. It was her. And she finally had a name for the person who had occupied her thoughts all week. It clicked into place in her mind as if she had finally figured out the name to a half-remembered song that she had stuck in her head. She let out a breath she hadn’t realised she was holding and managed to shale Yang’s hand and introduce herself.

“I’m Blake, I’m sure you’ve heard far too much about Sun already and this is Ilia.”

Ilia shot her a curious look, but she chose to ignore it for now. She knew that if anyone could tell she was internally freaking out it was Ilia and she was not ready to acknowledge that just yet.

“Can I buy the birthday girl a drink? Sorry I didn’t have a chance to buy you a proper present. I only got into town.”

“Sure, just soda for me though.”

“Two sodas it is.”

They spent most of the night by each other’s side, whether they were chatting with others or getting far too competitive over pool and arcade games. Blake was sure that Yang had cheated at least once when Blake had her back turned away from the pool table.

“I’m pretty sure the cue ball was not that close to number six Yang.” Blake said, raising an eyebrow in accusation.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Belladonna, maybe you bumped the table.” Yang replied, the smile that she was failing to repress giving her away.

Blake decided to let it slide and was glad for it when she won anyway, extra bragging rights. Her mistake came when she decided to take pity on Yang and let her choose the next game.

“Alright Belladonna, time for something a little more up my alley.”

Blake couldn’t help but sigh when Yang led the way to the other side of the bar and marched right up to damn dance battle machine.

“Actually, maybe it makes more sense for the winner of the last game to choose.”

“I promise to go easy on you.” Yang said, winking at Blake as she already started to set up the game.

Yang did not go easy on her, but even loosing so terribly, it was more fun than Blake was willing to admit.

They spent hours talking, Yang was a good listener and easy to talk to and if could tell Blake had been running through a million possibilities of what it all mean tin her head for the first part of the night, she didn’t say anything. They talked about the book that Yang had let Ruby lend her and about college, Blake quickly stopped paying attention to how much time had passed. They were occasionally interrupted by Sun or Ruby and Yang was dragged onto the dance floor by her sister when a song that obviously had some significance for the two of them came on.

Part of her wanted to ask her to dance with her but she couldn’t consider that properly without remembering the night club from that morning and what had nearly happened before those damn sirens just had to interrupt. Besides she had just met this girl, she was not going to straight to confessions and kissing. Not today.

“Thanks for being cool about me coming by the way, Ruby is determined to help me meet new people here and I wouldn’t be surprised if she had just told me it was okay without checking first.”

“I’m glad you could make it, not often a new person our age shows up. Think you’ll be hanging around long?”

“I’m hoping to, I’ve missed it. I just need to find work around here soon.”

Blake nodded, fiddling with the bottle cap of the sodas they had ordered. Not noticing that she had caught Yang’s attention until she said.

“That’s a beautiful ring, where did you get it?”

Blake hoped her surprise didn’t show on her face as Yang reached out almost absentmindedly to take Blake’s hand and get a closer look at her ring.

“It kind of looks familiar.”

At that Blake was decided. She stood and offered her hand to Yang. “You up for dancing?” Yang hesitated, looking a little awkward as she rubbed the back of her neck and met Blake’s eyes. “Don’t worry,” Blake added, “I promise I am marginally better on a dance floor than that dance death machine. I won’t make you look bad, if that is even possible.”

Yang chuckled and looked towards the dancefloor in attempt to hide her blush. “Since it’s not competitive this time maybe I can teach you a bit.” Yang said, she winked as she stood, and it was Blake’s turn to blush.

As she led Yang to the dance floor, she slipped the bottle cap into her pocket. She had a feeling she was going to want to remember that night as many times as she could.


	2. Mixed Messages

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Figuring things out ends up being just a little more complicated than Blake had hoped.

Blake was restless for most of the night. When her alarm blared at 9am she was sure it was wrong. There was no way she had been in bed for seven hours already. After hitting snooze twice and having the extra time make no difference to how exhausted she felt, Blake rolled out of bed. She had barely slept. At first it was due to the excitement of the night, the loud music and dancing late into the night and her swirling thoughts. It felt like adrenaline was still pumping through her veins as she got ready for bed. When she eventually managed to relax enough for her heart to calm down, different thoughts were keeping her awake. Her last conversation with Yang pushed to the forefront of her thoughts.

_Shit. **Shit.**_

She had panicked in the moment, all she knew was she didn’t want the night to be over, to not see Yang again. As they had been saying their goodbyes it had all just tumbled out. She felt like she had been watching herself from across the room as she rambled and ended up inviting Yang to the movie night the following day. She had panicked further and said that Ruby and Weiss were welcome too of course. Yang had seemed surprised for a moment, but it was replaced quickly by her easy smile and a promise to be there.

She had drifted off contemplating what it had all meant. She was already tempted to relive some of the night using the bottle cap she had safely stashed in her jewellery box. They gold ring her mother had given her was still on her finger when she had finally fallen asleep. And that was where the trouble started.

At first, they seemed like normal nightmares. Running through the dark, an ominous building on fire, a shadowy figure stalking her. But then the details began to come into focus. The scene gradually shifted, but it was still fractured. Jumping from one point in time to the next without warning, she could tell that they were connected but every jump was a different point in time. She was alone on a ship, and it felt like her heart was in pieces, broken by her own hand. A waterfall, the same figure that had been stalking her through shadows falls to the water as she falls to the ground.

She was sitting up in bed and could feel sweat making her shirt cling to her uncomfortably. The ring on her finger felt too warm, a degree away from burning her. She removed it quickly and put it back in the decorated wooden box before stashing it in the drawer by her bed. If it had caused those nightmares…what in darkness was that supposed to mean? So far everything had been happy and bright in her trips down possibly her own memory lane. Was this supposed to be a warning? Could she have misread it all?

She was pulled from her anxious thoughts by her phone buzzing next to her. The screen lit up with a text from Ilia.

**Hey! You free? Going to the café a few blocks from you in 20.**

Blake knew that Ilia had seen her barely contained shock at seeing Yang. She also knew that Ilia was not one to beat around the bush, she would ask her out right what was up. As terrifying as the idea of telling her everything was, she felt like she would burst if she didn’t talk to _someone_ about this. And maybe her friend would be able to come up with something that would help ease her mind, at least a little.

She took a breath before looking back at her phone. Before she could talk herself out of it, she told Ilia she had just woken up and would meet her there.

On the walk over to the café Blake ran through how she was going to explain everything. She weighed up the pros and cons of even telling Ilia and had several practice rounds done in her head before she pushed open the café door and heard the familiar little bell above her head.

Ilia was still in line when she spotted her, she gestured to a free table near the window at the back of the room, Blake went to claim it before anyone else could while Ilia got their drinks. At this point she definitely knew Blake’s order, she was a creature of habit after all.

Blake had too much time to think on the way over, and while waiting for Ilia. She had talked herself into and out of telling Ilia everything at least a hundred times by now. She didn’t even know where to start. How could she explain that a simple birthday gift lead to her discovering something new about her abilities and or possibly losing her mind? There was no casual or remotely sensical way to phrase any of it.

She had been debating flipping a coin when Ilia finally joined her at the table. She knew she needed to talk about this. Ilia slid her tea across the table and waited. Blake got the feeling she was trying to let Blake start the conversation. She wanted to, but her mind wasn’t in a cooperating mood apparently.

“Okay that’s enough of that. Spill” Ilia said after a few minutes, taking a sip oh her drinking and fixing her gaze on Blake expectantly.

Blake didn’t bother trying to pretend like she didn’t know what Ilia meant. There was no going back now. Blake took a deep breath and fixated on her tea instead of meeting Ilia’s eyes.

“So, this is going to sound crazy.” She began hesitantly. “But I swear, it all happened.”

She started at the beginning. She described what happened with that damn painting Ilia had pointed out in the museum, the book Sun had gotten her. By the time she had finished with the second memory, talking was getting easier. She became less certain when she started talking about the ring, knowing that she would soon have to describe the nightmares that had haunted her for most of the night, the fear she had felt in her bones throughout. By the end of it all she was rambling, which only got worse as she explained that she had impulsively invited Yang to movie night.

“Blake, take a breath. It’s okay. These, memories. They’re really getting to you aren’t they?”

Blake nodded. She felt tired just thinking about it all, and her restless night hadn’t helped.

“I just, don’t know what it all means yet. Up until last night it had all been sunshine and rainbows mostly. But, what if I got it wrong? What if it was supposed to be a warning of some kind and not about finally letting someone else in like I thought?”

“I know it’s confusing Blake but, you know you are not actually married to this girl, right?” Ilia sat back and sipped her drink as she looked Blake over. “There is no commitment to each other, you met less than twenty-four hours ago, and she doesn’t know anything about whatever the hell happened this week. You have time to figure this out.”

“I…it sounds a lot simpler when you say it like that.”

Ilia smiled and Blake finally started to feel more at ease. She didn’t need to figure this out right now. There was no imminent danger, no deadline.

“So, what movie are we watching tonight? And if you say Sun had any influence on the decision, I may suddenly not be able to go.”

Blake laughed and the two girls lapsed into comfortable conversation while they drank.

__________________________________________________________________________

By the time Blake met with Sun she was feeling a little calmer. After talking it out with Ilia, things were at least a little more in perspective. She always had a way to counter Blake’s fears and catastrophising with rational thought. She was a far cry from being _okay_ with it all, but it was starting to feel more like a low stake puzzle than the apocalypse.

Wandering around the supermarket was a nice distraction. She and Sun had arranged to meet that morning to prepare for movie night. Now that she had doubled the guest list, she knew Sun would be tripling the amount of snacks he’d want to buy. Trying to catch him floating more chocolate and marshmallows into the cart behind her back was proving difficult.

“So, Weiss had fun last night. But we both thought your attention was a bit ugh, divided.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Blake was pushing the shopping trolly down the isle of the supermarket and reading over the list she had put together to avoid looking at Sun. If he noticed that she was blushing he didn’t say anything, but she could tell he knew _something_ was up.

“Oh don’t give me that. You and Yang barely left each other’s sides for the whole night. Did you catch feelings that fast?”

“I have not caught anything. I was just being friendly.”

“Mhm, whatever you say.” Sun answered, wearing an annoyingly smug smirk as he flicked his hand and toppled another bag of marshmallows into their cart.

“You realise I have not invited the entire city to movie night, right?”

“I know, that’s why I’m restraining myself with the snacks.”

Blake looked between Sun and their already half full cart that was 80% sugar at this point and rolled her eyes.

“Well whatever is going on, Weiss picked up on it too. She’s known Yang a long time. She said that Yang has never been she at a party but something about last night felt, different. She even asked to make sure the two of you hadn’t met before.”

“It’s uhm. It’s kind of complicated. We haven’t met before, technically. I’m still figuring it out. But I promise to let you know when I do.”

“Well, whatever is going on up there,” He added, tapping his finger against her forehead lightly. “Just don’t let it be the only voice you listen to okay? Your friends got you on this.”

____________________________________________________________________________

A few hours later, Blake was standing alone in her room. She still had time before everyone would start arriving for movie night and all she could think about was her conversation with Ilia from that morning.

_“You have time to figure this out.”_

She knew Ilia was right, but she also knew that to actually figure things out, there were only so many places to look for answers. Their trip to the museum hadn’t told her much. She knew that she hadn’t been engaged to Yang in it. But she also knew that wasn’t the full story. She had written about them, the inequality of the time had meant that none of it had ever seen the light of day until recently. But she had written about the love of her life and she hadn’t mentioned an engagement, only an almost, a missed chance and the one who got away. As ridiculous as it was, she hoped that the story hadn’t ended there for them.

She looked between the book that was still on her nightstand and the drawer she knew held a small gold ring. The book seemed like the safer option, she didn’t feel ready for whatever memories were attached to the ring. The crowded club, the dancing, the closeness alone was too overwhelming, and with the added layer of the nightmares from last night, no, she wasn’t ready for that just yet. She started reading, keeping her mind in check for now. She did actually want to finish this book, and she was hoping to give herself some time to relax. Knowing that the scrawled handwriting in the margins was Yang’s felt strange. She could read it in her voice and imagine her writing it in when the book was new and the ink fresh. The comments that were less serious and more sarcastic made her smile even more when she knew exactly how it would sound to hear Yang say it herself.

Eventually she let her mind wander a little, just like last time. She reached out to the book and what was buried within. She had to force herself to keep her hold on it as she felt her fingertips warm. As terrifying as it was, she _needed_ answers. She let her eyes drift shut, relaxing into the familiar sensation as much as she could.

_When she opened her eyes again, she was standing on a stone balcony. She leaned against the stone railing and watched the sunset over the far hills. The evening was warm and so clear she could see all the way to the coast, the ocean just visible glistening on the horizon. It was beautiful, so beautiful it looked more like a painting, too picturesque to be real._

_As she took it all in she became more aware of a nervous feeling in her stomach and a tightness in her chest. She was waiting for something, or someone. She could feel this other version of her’s excitement and apprehension like it was her own._

_She was startled suddenly by a high-pitched whistle sounding from below her. Her breath caught in her throat as she looked down and saw her. As she suspected, it was Yang. She stared up at her, grinning wide, blonde hair as wild as ever. Blake smiled back, she felt her heart jump a little as Yang watched her._

_“Did you forget where the door is? Or are you here to finally break my heart and decided to keep a safe distance?”_

_Yang laughed and shook her head, grinning even wider as she shielded her eyes with her hand so she could look up at Blake._

_“If I was to break your heart, I don’t think any distance would be a safe one.”_

_Blake giggled before responding “So, you need directions to the door then?”_

_“So impatient! I’m on my way don’t worry.”_

_Yang turned to walk away, towards where Blake assumes the front door to whatever lavish home she was in is. Just as she was about to push away from the edge of the balcony, she saw Yang stop. She turned around slowly and even from here Blake could see the mischievous look in her eyes._

_“You know, I think the door is a bit far away. I can’t keep a beautiful lady waiting a moment longer.”_

_Blake had no idea what the other woman was thinking. She watched, confused as Yang ran towards the wall under her balcony. For a few moments she was out of sight, Blake could hear some shuffling and the odd grunt. As the noises got closer, she realised what Yang must be doing._

_“You’re crazy! You know that right?”_

_She could hear Yang laugh just beneath her and she couldn’t help but laugh too. After a few moments she saw Yang’s hand as it gripped the edge of her balcony and she easily lifter herself up and over the wall. Blake would be lying if she said she wasn’t impressed, but she wasn’t about to let Yang know that._

_“Yang you work here, it wouldn’t be unthinkable that you’d be still her and using the actual door.” Yang smirks and leans in to kiss her, but Blake pushes her back. “You know better than that, not out in the open.”_

_“I climb all the way up here and don’t even get a kiss?”_

_“Oh, you’ll get more than a kiss, if you hurry up and get inside.”_

_“Yes ma’am.”_

_They turned around and entered a lavish bedroom. There’s a large bed to the side with drapes and a small couch with too many cushions. Yang wraps her arms around her waist as soon as they are away from the window, pulling her in close._

Normally Blake would wait for a memory to end on its own. It hurts a little as she drags herself out of it. She knew what was about to happen. She also knew that she was _not_ ready for it. And if she was honest with herself, she didn’t want to kiss any version of Yang that wasn’t hers before she got the chance in this lifetime. Gods, _her Yang_. She met this girl _yesterday._ Ilia may have overestimated how much time they had to figure things out. Blake wasn’t sure how much longer she could handle it.

She snapped the book closed and sets it on her bedside table. That definitely didn’t answer any of her questions. At most it clarified that they had been in a romantic relationship in at least two of the memories. But what about the others? Or the next day? She was only seeing snippets, and they were mostly of good memories, they were happy. But she refused to believe it was that simple. Maybe if she had more information, she’d feel more comfortable deciding on what her stupid abilities were trying to tell her. She couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to it all than a happily ever after showing up on her doorstep.

Blake had everything ready an hour before everyone was even supposed to start showing up. She had most of the snacks she and Sun had picked up sorted into bowls. Even after deciding to leave some in the kitchen for refills later, the table in her living room was covered. She had checked several times to make sure everyone would have somewhere to sit comfortably. Eventually she decided that an extra seat was needed and dragging a bean bag down from her room, which she then vacuumed.

Ilia arrived first. She walked in to find a very flustered Blake trying to quickly stuff a vacuum into the coat closet. They were long past the need for either of her childhood friends to knock, it was times like this that left Blake rethinking that arrangement.

Ilia stopped short and gave Blake a quizzical look.

“You need some help?”

“Nope, just ugh. I just wanted to, uhm. I dropped a glass.”

“Riiight. I know you have a lot on your plate, so I am going to let the fact that you were definitely just panic cleaning slide this time and choose to believe that half-baked lie.” 

Blake finally managed to shut the closet door and leaned against it.

“You know, maybe we need to reinstate knocking.”

Ilia rolled her eyes and walked past Blake, striding into the now immaculate living room.

“I would feel honoured that you were doing everything short of preparing a red carpet for tonight if I believed for a second it wasn’t entirely because you impulse invited a certain blonde.”

“I have been meaning to clean this place up for a while, tonight just happens to be the perfect excuse.” Blake countered, following Ilia.

“Mhmm. So, have you figured out anything new since this morning?”

Blake hated how her cheeks heated slightly at the thought of what she had seen earlier that day. It wasn’t real, she wasn’t the person who had so easily teased and flirted with Yang. But she _felt_ it, all of it, and it scared her.

“Nothing new, and definitely nothing helpful.” She admitted, unwilling to give any more detail.

“How about we enjoy tonight, you inevitably spend most of it talking to Yang, and if you want, we can go back to the museum tomorrow. See what you find.”

“That sounds better than any plan I’ve had in the last twenty-four hours.” Blake admitted, taking a steadying breath.

“You two scheming without me again?”

Blake jumped. She had been too distracted to hear Sun come in. He walked past them and flopped onto the bean bag near the tv without hesitation.

“Shouldn’t you be picking a seat you can actually share with your girlfriend?”

“Funny. I was going to ask you the same thing.”

Blake huffed in annoyance and turned away from him before her could see the heat starting to rise a in her cheeks. She needed to get it together before the others showed up.

Ilia sat at the far corner of the couch and flung a cushion at Sun. He caught it easily and threw it back before Ilia had time to react. Their usual bickering put Blake at ease more than it probably should, she was glad that she had the foresight to tell them to show up at least a few minutes before the others.

It wasn’t long before the knock on the door that Blake had been equally dreading and excited for, finally echoed through the house. She could feel Ilia’s eyes on her as she hopped up from her spot on the couch to go great the others. Blake hesitated for a moment, her hand on the handle of the door. She didn’t need all the answers yet, she told herself. They would just have a fun, normal night and she’d go from there.

When she swung the door open she was met with the sight of Ruby, laden with two large shopping bags which, at a glance, seemed to be mostly filled with different brands of cookies. Weiss stood beside her, arms crossed. Blake had a feeling she had lost an argument regarding the quantity of cookies. Yang stood behind them, she smiled as Blake opened the door and Blake hoped that her returning smile looked just as relaxed and didn’t betray how the way her heart fluttered ever so slightly was enough to incite just a _little_ panic.

“I tried to tell her that Sun would have bought enough snacks for an army and we didn’t need to add to it.” Weiss said. “As you can see, I did not win that particular battle.”

Yang snickered behind her. “This way we _might_ just have enough so Sun and Ruby aren’t the only ones eating.”

“I didn’t know what she _liked_ Yang, we went over this. I didn’t want to show up with something she hated.” Ruby looked sheepish as she said it but recovered quickly. She smiled wide at Blake, “Thanks for having us by the way.”

“Glad you could make it, buying out half a store’s supply of cookies was unnecessary but appreciated.” She said as she stepped aside to let them in.

Yang’s eyes lingered on her as she walked past her and into the living room. She looked like she was trying to read Blake’s thoughts. If she had telepathic abilities Blake was _so_ screwed. Whatever Yang was looking for, Blake wasn’t sure if she found it. But she smiled and it seemed genuine and not like she had just heard Blake’s panicked monologue. Blake let herself relax a little, movie night had never seemed so daunting.

“So, this movie is your favourite, right?” Yang asked as the opening sequence started.

“Yeah, I have a habit of watching it at least once a year, normally around my birthday.”

“She’s only allowed to choose the movie every couple weeks, to avoid us all getting cavities from her usual choices, or just sad, there’s usually no in-between.” Ilia added.

“Oh come on, I choose the action ones you like _sometimes_. And I know you don’t hate romance as much as you pretend to.”

“Will you guys stop _talking_.” Sun complained

“Haven’t you seen this about a hundred times already?” Weiss asked.

“Yeah, but, ugh. _You_ haven’t, don’t want to ruin your experience.” 

“Sure, and it has nothing to do with this secretly being your favourite movie too” Blake said accusingly.

“What? Don’t be ridiculous.”

Blake rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry Sun, nothing to be ashamed of. What happens at movie night stays at movie night. I’m sure they won’t tell anyone that you cried the first time you watched it either.”

Weiss covered her mouth to try to stifle her laughter. Blake grinned at Sun, who promptly flipper her off.

“Oh great, you two teaming up should be _great_ for me,” Sun grumbled. He grabbed another handful of popcorn and slumped into his seat.

“You wanted us to get along, this is what that looks like,” Weiss said.

Blake sat between Ilia and Weiss and tried to keep her glances at Yang to a minimum. Yang seemed far more at ease than Blake would have been the house of someone who was basically a stranger.

“Oh crap, I didn’t ask if anyone wants something to drink. Can I get anyone a soda?” Blake asked, half embarrassed for not being on her game as a hostess and half needing something to distract from her thoughts that kept leading back to the girl currently sprawled in an arm chair a few feet away.

Sun, Ilia and Ruby raised their hands without looking away from the TV.

“Three sodas coming right up.”

“I’ll give you a hand.” Yang offered, quickly hopping out of her seat to follow Blake to the kitchen.

Blake wasn’t sure if the silence that followed was awkward or not. But it felt heavy, like they both had things they wanted to say but couldn’t find the words. Or it could be just her projecting since she had about a million things she wanted to say, none of which she felt like she could, or should.

“So, is everything okay?” Yang asked hesitantly. “You seemed, I don’t know, distracted? During the movie.”

So, she wasn’t projecting. That at least was reassuring.

“Well that confirms one thing I was wondering about, you’re _not_ a telepath.”

Yang chuckled, “No. Definitely not a mind reader. Well, not technically. I’m an empath.”

_Crap_

“I usually can’t get much of a read on people that I don’t know well.” She added quickly. “I just had a feeling, so I wanted to check with you, sorry if that seems weird.”

“It’s not weird I appreciate you checking in. So, with Weiss and Ruby, are you just hyper aware of their feelings all the time?”

“No, thank gods. Not anymore anyway. I learned to control it, to turn it off or to focus it when I needed to. Growing up, it could get ugh, overwhelming at times.”

Blake could tell there was a lot more behind Yang’s words than she was saying, but she didn’t want to push her to reveal it. She stayed quiet, watching as Yang seemed to be debating with herself if she should say more.

“When we were kids, our mom died in an accident. Well she was Ruby’s biological mother, but she was the only mother I ever knew too.”

Yang didn’t meet her eyes, she kept her eyes on her feet as she talked. It didn’t seem like she was accustomed to talking about this with people, definitely not people she had just met.

“Being a kid, looking out for Ruby and watching our dad dealing with losing _another_ person he loved. Then suddenly being able to feel everything the people I cared about could feel?”

“That’s a lot for anyone to carry, especially a child. You shouldn’t have had to, but you seem like a very strong person Yang.”

Yang looked up at her then, finally meeting her eyes and Blake’s heart broke a little at the look in her eyes. The vulnerability that only lasted a moment, Blake could see the little kid that need someone to look out for her but instead poured all of her energy into the people she loved.

“Sorry, that was a lot. I don’t usually ramble about childhood trauma to people I just met, I promise.”

“You’re fine Yang, thank you for trusting me with it.” 

“Getting control of your powers on your own like that, it must have been difficult.”

“Yeah, and I apparently didn’t learn much from it. I went straight from school to train as a paramedic. Figuring out how people are feeling, being able to relate to and comfort them. It comes in handy.”

Yang shrugged like what she’d said was no big deal. She really couldn’t see how incredible it was to have that capacity to care for others, expecting nothing in return.

“Now,” Yang added, “should we get these drinks to the others before they incite a riot?”

Blake chuckled and went to the fridge. “We probably should.”

She was grateful that Yang hadn’t asked her about her abilities, she hadn’t even tried to push for Blake to share some of her own past. She had opened a door and she was letting Blake decide if she wanted to go through it. She couldn’t help but wonder if Yang knew there was something strange going on or if that was just who Yang was.

When the movie ended Sun and Weiss were the first to leave. Ruby and Yang insisted on staying to tidy up. Ruby helped Ilia to clean around where they had all been sitting, she had admitted that most of the crumbs were probably her fault anyway. Yang helped Blake in the kitchen, they were dividing up the excess snacks, deciding which ones Ruby would bring home and which ones Blake would set aside for Sun. 

“Rubes told me that you’re the one who borrowed my book.”

“Oh yeah, thank you for that. Do you need it back?”

“No, it’s okay, you can keep it as long as you need. You can probably tell I’ve read it a few too many times anyway.

“I liked it, your notes. And I agreed with _most_ of them. So far anyway.”

“Only most of them?” Yang asked, raising an eyebrow at her. “Sounds like we could have a bit to talk about when you’re done. Maybe over lunch?”

Blake was caught off guard by that. Was it a date? It felt like it could be. Did she want it to be? Instead of letting herself voice any of that, she simply smirked back at Yang.

“Sounds like fun, I rarely lose a debate though. You sure you want to pay to lose like that?”

Yang laughed, not expecting Blake to have answer ready.

“Tell you what Belladonna, if you manage to change my mind on something in that book, lunch is on me.”

“Likewise.”

“Sounds like a plan then. How about you text when you’re done.”

“Looking forward to it.”

Ilia hung back after Ruby and Yang left, both carrying tote bags of sweets and cookies.

“So, tomorrow morning, we are both going back to that damn museum exhibition.”

“What? _Why?”_

“Because, I was talking to Ruby and I’ve decided you need to figure this thing out. And I want to help. Whatever is going on, I think Yang is sensing it too. It all started with that painting so maybe there is more information there.”

“Yang knows something?” Blake asked, sounding more worried than she intended.

“Nothing specific, nothing about what you’ve seen. But with something like that? It’s hard to believe it’s only affecting you.”

“I guess I hadn’t thought of it like that.”

“That’s why you have me.” Ilia said, she grabbed her jacket from the chair she had left it on and headed for the door.

“Tomorrow morning. We’ll find something.”

“Tomorrow.”

“I don’t think this is the right one.” Blake said as Ilia continued scanning the collection of letters and scarps of writing in frames that covered most of the wall.

It was only 10am but they had already been scanning through pages of writing for an hour now. Ilia had insisted that they should arrive as soon as the museum opened. Blake wasn’t sure how long Ilia thought they would need for this impromptu investigation, but she hoped it wasn’t _all day_.

“It’s the same handwriting though, and it has the same pseudonym. I think. Why is your handwriting so damn small and smudgy?”

“It’s not _my_ handwriting. At least, not technically. I don’t know how this works.”

“Well it sort of sounds like you, a complete sap, flowery language, broodiness.”

“I thought you insisting we come here meant you were actually going to _help_. Not just insult me, or her, whatever.”

“I am helping, I’ve read at least ten letters about a conflicted young girl promised to the wrong person and at least three pages rambling about a beautiful girl that she had to leave behind and some ring that she wished she’d given to her under different circumstances or something. That was the general idea anyway, it went on for quite a while.”

“A ring?” Blake asked, suddenly feeling awake for the first time that day.

Ilia looked confused for a moment when she saw Blake’s expression, but her eyes widened as realisation dawned on her, “Oh crap, you mentioned a ring the other day didn’t you? I completely forgot.

“Which one mentioned it?” Blake asked, trying to seem more restrained than she felt.

“Uhhh, that one, second to the left.” Ilia said, pointing halfway down the wall.

Blake hurried over and read every word. Everything was framed and old enough that they looked like too much sun, or a single touch could make them crumble, so using her abilities was unfortunately out of the question for this one. Hopefully that didn’t mean it was a wasted morning.

She scanned through the essay length letter carefully, then moved onto the next and the next. She could tell most of them were from the same person, and that none of them seemed to have gotten replies, if they had, none of them were on display. The story they told was sad, it was about heartbreak, missed chances and almosts. It seemed she was right, the story of the two girls posing for a painting before the other left hadn’t ended there, but by the looks of it, it hadn’t ended happily either. The pages were covered in apologies and explanations, not a single I’ll come home, I’ll make it back or I’ll see you soon. Whenever she had gone, she didn’t seem to have found a way back. The letters didn’t give much away, nor the short stories about two young lovers. But Blake knew who they were about.

“Find anything useful?”

Blake jumped a little at Ilia’s sudden appearance. She hadn’t noticed her friend wander over as she was reading.

“I don’t know yet.” Blake answered honestly. “If anything, I’m just more confused.”

“Well, like I said, time is on your side Blake. We’ll figure it out.”

“Yeah, I have a feeling we will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ended up being a bit shorter than the first one but hope you enjoyed!   
> I think this is just going to have one more part.   
> Updates are a mystery because work, but hopefully I'll have it for ye soon!  
> And I want to say thanks for the support on the last one, every comment and kudos made my day, ya'll are great.


	3. Surprises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guess who is dating but not really dating?   
> Getting to know Yang better may help more than Blake thought.  
> At first anyway.

It had been a week.

A week since the movie night and the party that had turned Blake’s life a little on its head. She hadn’t had any more memories interrupting her day to day, or, she hadn’t _let_ herself even consider it since the museum. Thankfully, that also meant that the nightmares had stayed away too.

She had been able to finish the book Yang had loaned to her in peace, but now it meant that it was about time she returned it. Part of her was glad to have an easy way to see Yang whenever she managed to stop talking herself out of it. Part of her was very tempted to give it to Sun to return it for her. Other than the fact that she was pretty sure Sun would see right through her and refuse to be her middle man, Blake would be lying if she said she didn’t want to see Yang, or that she hadn’t been thinking about her since the party.

The book was small, a week was more than enough time to have read it twice by now. Any longer and Yang would suspect she had either forgotten or was the slowest reader in existence. Neither options were acceptable to Blake. She had told herself multiple times over the last twenty-four hours that today was the day. She knew that her nervousness about seeing Yang was only partially due to the butterflies that had taken up residence in her stomach about two hours into her birthday party. Some of it was fear. She hated that that emotion was weaving its way into her life again. She couldn’t ignore the nightmares, she couldn’t let herself get blindsided again. Trying to figure out what was right in front of her was proving far more difficult than she had hoped. Spending time with Yang, one on one, could be exactly what she needed to get whatever story her abilities were telling her in order. Or, it could just as easily be what made her jump without looking out for danger first.

Blake had been pacing in her room while all of this swirled around in her mind. With a sigh, she finally sat down on her bed cross-legged, her phone and Yang’s book sitting in front of her, taunting her to make a decision. She knew she was over thinking it. Texting Yang to say she was ready to give her the book back was hardly world-shattering stuff. Yet here she was, feeling like she was an inch away from the edge of a cliff, so high she couldn’t see the ground beneath. She had procrastinated earlier and talked to Ilia again who said that if Blake didn’t text her by six, she would do it herself, and she would not be subtle about it. It was 20 minutes from the deadline Ilia had set and Blake did not want to find out if she was bluffing.

With a frustrated sigh Blake tentatively reached for her phone and flipped over on her bed to lie on her stomach. One text. That’s all she had to write. One text and then she could leave her phone here and go find some leftovers in the kitchen, Yang probably wouldn’t even reply for a while anyway. She typed quickly, reread it several times to make sure no spelling mistakes slipped through and pressed send. She tossed her phone to the other side of the bed and immediately got to work on directing her thoughts to just about anything else. She grabbed her dressing gown from the back of her door and headed for the kitchen. Before she had reached the first step on the stairs, she heard it. Her phone dinged.

“Gods damn it.” Blake mumbled.

Of course, this girl was the type to reply immediately.

Yang: Hey! Good to hear you liked the book. I’m free all day tomorrow to pick it up. Or we could go somewhere? If you wanted to.

Blake: Have somewhere in mind?

I heard about an exhibit at the museum that’s closing soon, sounds like it would be _write_ up your alley.

Blake rolled her eyes at that. Yang barely knew her, yet here she was suggesting something she would absolutely love. Something she had been unsure even her best friends would think of as a gift for her.

Blake: Unfortunately, Ilia and Sun already beat you to that idea by two weeks.

Yang: Damn.

Yang: How are you with surprises then?

Blake: As long as they are good ones, I’m a fan.

Yang: Great! I’ll be around at 1 tomorrow then.

Blake: See you then.

Blake smiled to herself as she left her phone on her bedside table. She knew the worry and doubt would return before the morning, but for now, she was happy and excited. It had been a while since she had felt the butterflies associated with new beginnings like this, she was determined to let herself enjoy them for now.

The next morning went quickly, almost too quickly. Blake was distractedly reading for most of it after having breakfast with her parents. By the time it was getting close to noon Blake had to give up on the book she had been attempting to read. She had reread the page she was on three times now, but she still couldn’t make it to the end without her mind wandering. When her mother came by around noon to check on her and found Blake tidying her room, Kali merely smirked but didn’t say a word. Kali could read her too easily, Blake knew by the look that her mother had given her that she knew Blake’s claim that she was “just meeting a friend” was not the whole story. Seeing her daughter flustered and resorting to cleaning her room from top to bottom as a distraction would be all the evidence she needed. Blake was at least grateful that her mother hadn’t said anything and had left her to be flustered and indecisive about what to wear in peace.

The doorbell rang at exactly one o’clock. Blake wondered if Yang had been waiting outside ready to call exactly on time. It seemed like something she would do. Blake opened the door quickly, she couldn’t help but smile at the way Yang startled and then blushed slightly as she met her eyes. Blake stepped out onto the porch, not wanting to give her parents a chance to pounce and ask Yang a million questions.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

Yang smiled sheepishly and rubbed at the back of her neck. Blake inclined her head slightly ash she looked at her. Yang could be the brightest and most confident person in a crowded room, like the energy of the crowd just woke her up. Then there were moments like this, when Yang seemed she and awkward, completely unsure. Blake couldn’t deny that it was endearing. She walked past Yang but hesitated at the last step down from hr porch.

“You coming?”

She called over her shoulder as Yang shook her head and smiled.

“Well good afternoon to you too miss Belladonna.”

“Where are we headed to then?” Blake asked.

I thought you said you were good with surprises?

“I am, I never claimed to be patient though.”

“Well then you know a good surprise must remain a secret for as long as possible.”

“Won’t I just figure it out soon anyway, we are walking there. If you’re planning on blind folding me, I must remind you I have only met you three times now and I don’t think we’re there yet.”

Yang laughed at that and picked up her pace a little as they continued walking towards town.

“So impatient! If you figure out where we’re going before, we get there I’ll be impressed, but you only get three guesses so use them wisely.”

Blake smiled and rolled her eyes.

“Do I get any hints then?”

“Nope. It’s my money on the line here, Belladonna.”

“Oh? We putting money on this wager then? Or are you telling me we are going somewhere you can buy me a well-earned prize?”

“Nice try, you’re not getting anything from me. Just have to get your detective hat out.”

After that they lapsed into easy conversation. Blake occasionally pressed for a hint about where they were going or asked questions that Yang refused to answer. Mostly they talked about what they’d been doing since the party, the book Blake had finally returned to its rightful owner and their shared experiences of suffering while Weiss and Sun failed to figure things out between them for so long.

“He rang me once at 2am, he was so nervous for their first official date he couldn’t sleep.”

“I remember that night. Weiss called Ruby first and Ruby didn’t know how to help, she panicked and out the phone on loudspeaker and ran into my room. I thought there was a fire or something.”

It kind of surprised Blake, how easily it was to talk, she felt comfortable around Yang after only meeting her a handful of times, and every time before that had been with other people. The excitement that came with the butterflies in her stomach or her heart fluttering just a little whenever she made Yang laugh weren’t terrifying and, it felt nice.

“Alright, I think it’s officially time for me to give up. I’m not even sure I’ve been to this part of town before.”

“What? Haven’t you lived here for almost your entire life?”

“Almost.” Blake confirmed. “But I don’t know it as well as I thought I did apparently.”

“Clearly. Well, you’re giving up right on time because it’s just around the corner.”

They rounded the corner onto a small street Blake was sure she had never seen before. It was busy but not overly crowded. It was lined with mostly restaurants and various small stores. The first thing to catch her eye was the restaurant that look a little bigger than the others. It looked like it had been recently repainted, black paint shining in the afternoon sun and the name Yamamori was printed in red above the door.

“Sushi?”

“Yup. You mentioned on your birthday that it was your favourite, right?”

Yang looked a little nervous when she asked, like she was suddenly doubting herself. As soon as she said it Blake remembered the conversation, or at least the part of the conversation that had lead to her offhand comment about her favourite food. She was surprised Yang even remembered that.

“You’re right, it is.” Blake smiled and moved to look over the menu.

“A friend mentioned this place to me the other day, said it just opened up. Thought you might like to try it out.”

“You thought right, this menu looks _amazing_.”

Yang visibly relaxed at that and offered a smile before holding the door open for Blake.

Their outings, which Blake refused to call dates even though Ilia and Sun wouldn’t call them anything else, became regular occurrences. Sometimes Yang showed up on her motorbike she called bumblebee, which although Blake didn’t admit it at the time, she found endearing. Other times they’d meet in town or Blake would wait outside Yang’s apartment with both of their coffee orders and walk her to work because she knew Yang never left on time for her night shift and always regretted relying on hospital coffee.

A month after the sushi bar, Blake looked out her bedroom window to see Yang pulling up outside her house on bumblebee. Her first thought was that she was glad her parents were having a late dinner in town that day because she wouldn’t have to rush to beat them to the door. Her second thought was “When did all of this start feeling so normal that I’m not even questioning why this girl is outside my house?”

She grabbed her coat as she headed for the door to meet Yang on the front porch.

“Did you just happen to be sitting at your window waiting for me?”

Blake nearly ran into Yang, she was standing on front of her door, hand reaching for the doorbell.

“Humble as always I see. Bumblebee isn’t exactly quiet Yang.”

“Fair, but I choose to believe you were waiting at your bedroom window, brooding as the rain pelted the glass.”

“Yang, there is not a single cloud in the sky.”

Yang just smiled and shrugged as she turned back towards her motorbike waiting at the end of the driveway.

“A girl can dream. I like to exaggerate my own influence that way.”

“You definitely don’t need to exaggerate that.” Blake murmured under her breath.

She thought it was low enough for Yang to not hear it, but the way Yang glanced at her, smirk a little wider, Blake worried she had indeed heard.

“Is this another surprise then? Or do I actually get to know where we’re going?”

“It’s another surprise, but I promise it is another _good_ one.”

“At what point does surprise excursions become surprise kidnapping?” Blake asked.

“Is there such thing as a kidnapping that _isn’t_ a surprise?” Yang asked, raising an eyebrow at Blake.

“I…well no…but. Don’t change the subject.”

Yang laughed and handed Blake her a spare helmet. It was red and had a rose painted along the side, leading Blake to assume it was Ruby’s.

“You know, I adore your sister, but I couldn’t help that my first thought at seeing that helmet was, I really hope she was only ever the passenger. I have seen that girl knock over too many breakables.”

“Do not tell her I said this but, that is definitely fair. Plus no one gets to drive bumblebee except me.”

“So protective.”

“Only of the things that matter most” Yang said, winking at Blake and deftly taking her seat on bumblebee.

Blake smiled and rolled her eyes. She took her seat behind Yang and wrapped an arm around her waist lightly.

“Okay, I’m ready. Let the kidnapping commence.”

“You got it boss.”

It took a little less than an hour for them to reach their destination. The sun was hallway to disappearing beyond the horizon. Blake had given up on guessing where they were going when they reached the edge of the city. She was starting to feel like she didn’t know the place she grew up in half as well as she thought. Yet another thing in her life Yang was changing bit by bit.

There were a few people there already when they arrived. Many of them still in their cars sipping warm drinks, others were claiming space for themselves with large picnic blankets and huddled together. Everyone was facing towards the large lake over which the sun was currently disappearing.

“What is going on?”

“Luckily, after just a short period of time I know you well enough to know that you have little to no interest in social media.” Yang said. She parked bumblebee and hopped off before unzipping the bags Blake hadn’t taken much notice of attached to the sides of the bike.

“So, I put money on you having no idea this event was even happening. Glad to know I was right.”

“That is not an answer.”

“Hmm, guess it’s not.”

Blake watched as Yang pulled out two blankets, a thermos and two beanies. She spread out one of the blankets after choosing the best spot for it. Blake wasn’t entirely sure what the requirements were, but Yang seemed to know what she was looking for. She passed over a purple beanie and offered Blake dibs on whichever side of the blanket she wanted. Blake pretended to not notice that the beanie in her hands was very clearly brand new as she stretched it over her head, making sure it covered her ears.

Yang settled in beside her and busied herself with making sure the other blanket was equally distributed across their shoulders and pouring the tea she had brought for them. Blake had been denying it for days now, but Yang was clearly putting so much effort into this. Whatever kind of event they were currently sitting at, the fact that they were surrounded mostly by couples and only the occasional large group of friends was not lost on her. Denying that this was not an entirely platonic outing was seeming less and less possible by the second.

“So, I was wondering, has Sun mentioned the Schnee Gala to you yet?”

“The over the top, pretentious party they throw every year?”

“That’s the one. Weiss is bringing Sun and Ruby and I are invited too, I was wondering if you’d want to go?”

Blake turned to look at Yang, surprised to see that her usual confidence had been replaced by a somewhat sheepish look. Yang rubbed the back of her neck out of habit and glanced at Blake out of the corner of her eye.

“You’re asking me to be your plus one?”

“Uh, yeah. If you want to, I mean. Totally fine if it’s not your thing. But if anyone can make an evening like that interesting it’s the people Weiss has made the questionable decision to invite.”

“I can only imagine how Sun and Ruby react to being in high society and surrounded by free food. Sounds like something I wouldn’t want to miss. Plus, I already know you can dance so I won’t need to worry about embarrassing myself in front of the city’s elite too much. Though, getting into arguments with a few of them isn’t off the table.”

Yang beamed at her, eyes a little wide, catching the light of the night sky that was slowly filling with stars.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way Belladonna, I’ll make sure we have an escape route ready just in case.” 

They settled into a comfortable silence as they waited for whatever was going to happen. It was moments like this, when Blake could forget about whatever was happening with her, that Blake loved the most.

The first firework startled her. Yang tried and failed to hide her laugh when Blake nearly jumped off their blanket and narrowly missed spilling tea all over herself.

“This is cool Yang but just a _little_ warning would have been nice.”

Blake was glaring but she could tell Yang knew it was not a serious one, Blake had to put effort into not smiling as Yang sat nearly doubled over in laughter. Her smile was brighter than the firework that had nearly given Blake a heart attack but, may have been messing with her heart just as much.

Music started to blare from all around. The fireworks were set off in patterns to match and Blake watched as the night sky lit up to the beat of movie themes and popular pop songs.

When she had finished her tea, Blake rested her head against Yang’s shoulder while they watched the night sky light up again and again. She felt Yang tense for a moment before relaxing at letting out a small sigh. It was the most content she had felt in a long time.

When the show ended, they both stayed seated. The idea of jostling their way through the crowd seemed exhausting. Yang must have had the same opinion, she made no move to leave or start gathering up their things. Instead, they both stayed huddled together under their blanket. Colours were still dancing on front of Blake’s eyes, silent copies of the dazzling lights they had been watching. Her eyes adjusted after a few moments and she could finally see the stars. Without thinking, she let herself flop backwards, so she was lying down and looking up at the constellations that were slowly becoming clearer. What she had forgotten in that moment, was that Yang’s arm was behind her, wrapped loosely around her to keep the blanket in place, at least that’s what she had told herself. So, Blake pulled Yang down with her as she became dead weight and fell backwards to gaze up at the night sky.

“A little warning next time Belladonna,” Yang said, but she was laughing as she readjusted so Blake was no longer lightly crushing her arm.

“Aren’t you the one who talks about how great surprises are all the time?”

“You’ve got me there.”

Yang turned her head to look at Blake and they both smiled. The crowd had all but dispersed by now but Yang seemed as uninterested in leaving as Blake was. It felt so easy, comfortable and for once that didn’t scare her, or make her think of whatever was “destined” to happen. It just made her think about closing the small bit of distance that still existed between them. She didn’t let herself think twice about it.

“Well, hope you can handle one more.” Blake murmured as she leaned forward, she stopped just short of Yang’s lips, trying to gage her reaction. Yang’s eyes went wide for a second before she smiled and let them flutter closed, letting Blake close the last bit of distance. Blake couldn’t help but smile into the kiss. It was soft, and only lasted for a second. Blake stayed leaning over Yang, she could tell they were both processing what just happened. She could also tell that from the way neither of them could stop smiling that she had been right about these outings, dates, not being entirely platonic. Gods she wanted to stay in that moment forever.

“You say surprise,” Yang said, “But you fail to realise this was all part of the grand romantic plan for the night.”

Blake laughed and rolled off of Yang.

“Oh yeah? Just another page from your playbook?”

Yang stood up and offered a hand to help Blake off of the ground.

“That makes it sound like I’ve done this before, you’re definitely the first Belladonna.”

As she said it Yang pulled Blake towards her as soon as she had righted herself and Blake’s breath caught as Yang kissed her again, a little harder this time and for just a little longer.

When they made it back to Blake’s house it was getting pretty late. She knew her parents would probably be starting to worry by now. They parted with a final kiss and a promise to talk tomorrow.

“Can I keep this?” Blake asked, wringing the new beanie a little in her hands.

“Of course, I got it for you.”

Blake smiled and waved from her porch as Yang revved bumblebee and took off down the street.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have returned! Did not mean for the gap between updates to be so long. Life just...happened.   
> ANYWAY. Hope you enjoy! The last chapter is written already so it will be up soon.   
> Thanks for hanging around.   
> Comments as always are welcome.   
> tumblr: @Sparksrise


	4. Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blake gets another reminder of what her abilities can do when she least wants it and is finally forced to make a decision.

The thing about walking on air is, you never know when you’re going to fall.

As is so often the case, the thoughts Blake had been ignoring for a while all found their way back to her at night. She had been tempted to try using her abilities on her newly acquired beanie, already wishing to go back to the night that had only happened two days ago. She had never tried it so soon after an event before. Eventually she talked herself out of it. Instead, she finally found herself reaching for the little wooden box stashed in the drawer by her bed again. She didn’t try anything with it, she was still apprehensive after her nightmares. She admired it and twisted it around her finger as she thought. She hadn’t meant to fall asleep.

It was mostly the same as before. Flashes of red, shadowy figures, fires and a cold hard ground. She saw the ruins of an old building which were suddenly followed by a sea breeze that carried a sense of fear instead of freedom with it. It was even more muddled than last time. She saw Yang, multiple images moving too quickly to properly make out, she yelled something, then she was on the ground somewhere else entirely. She glimpsed a waterfall before she woke up, suddenly bolt upright in bed, a cold sweat starting on her back and forehead.

They had made plans to meet at Yang’s apartment again. Blake hoped that her night of restlessness wasn’t too obvious. She knew she must have dozed off eventually after the nightmare, but she woke multiple times and felt like she may as well have not slept at all. Yang had texted her earlier to say good morning and tell her the door would be open so she could let herself in that evening. The temptation to cancel clawed at her the whole way.

Blake tentatively opened the door to Yang’s apartment, feeling out of place just wandering in.

“Hello?”

“In here!”

Yang called out from the kitchen sounding just a little frantic. Blake turned the corner to see that Yang was at the stove. She could hear the distinctive sound of popcorn being made and the smell of what she assumed were cookies wafted from the oven.

Yang was wearing an apron and had her hair up in a messy bun, she was watching the popcorn closely, only looking away for a moment to smile at Blake when she sat at the kitchen island.

“Are more people coming for movie night?”

“No, it’s just us. I just _may_ have gone a little overboard with the snacks.”

“I’m sure Ruby wouldn’t be opposed to helping with the cookies when she gets home.”

“I’m sure we could talk her into it.”

The timer Yang had set on her phone sounded, making them both jump slightly. Yang quickly switched everything off. It was only when Yang turned to face her, tray of cookies in hand, that Blake notice the flour smudged on her nose and the chocolate stains on her apron. Despite everything, Blake smiled for the first time that morning.

“What?” Yang asked, head tilted slightly.

“I think the flour suits you.”

Blake laughed while she watched Yang go a little cross eyed to see the flour on her nose and pout a little at the discovery.

“You didn’t have to go to all this trouble for movie night Yang.”

“I know, I _wanted_ too. Plus, I have work tomorrow and baking is a good form of stress relief which also provides treats for stress eating. So, it’s a win win really. Get comfy on the couch, I’ll be ready in a minute.”

Yang had chosen the movie for the night. Blake knew it was one that Yang couldn’t believe Blake had never seen before. She was excited to watch it with her when they talked about it the other day. But Blake couldn’t focus on it. Part of it was likely due to sleep deprivation, but she knew that wasn’t the only reason. The more she tried to focus on the movie the more she felt her concentration slip and she was right back to that large burning room and cold floor from her dream.

She had thought that letting herself enjoy getting to know Yang would answer any questions she had. Maybe she had just been ignoring the problem. Why the ring had to show her the images from her nightmare instead of the night club she had originally glimpsed was beyond her. Maybe that was the rise before the fall for them just like the other night was for her now. She really didn’t want to make a mistake here, choose a path that could only lead to heartache, not when she could possibly prevent it.

“You doing okay?”

Blake was startled out of her thoughts. She hadn’t even noticed that Yang had paused the movie. She looked up to see Yang watching her with concern. She was ready to blame it on being tired, say she was fine, but gods she did not want to lie to Yang. The thought of actually telling her everything still terrified her though, she had all but given up on trying to figure out what it meant. She hoped she could ignore the memories and live in this reality, _just_ this one.

“Sorry, I didn’t sleep well. There’s been…I’ve just had a lot on my mind.”

“We can talk about it if you want to. Or, we can give movie night a rain check?”

“I...I don’t think this is a good idea.”

“What?”

“I should go.”

“Bake –

Gods she nearly told her. She nearly let it all pour out in an unorganised, incomprehensible mess. She couldn’t get the words out. But the images from last night were there in every blink, every pause. She couldn’t silence the thought _“What if that is the only way this can go?”_ It didn’t feel like a risk she was ready for. 

She stood up from the couch feeling like she was on auto pilot. She didn’t think she had really made a decision. But she was moving anyway. She mumbled an apology to Yang, unable to even make herself meet her eyes. She didn’t trust herself not to waiver if she did. Yang didn’t say anything as Blake got up from the couch and walked out the door of her apartment and she didn’t run after her. Blake didn’t think it was that kind of story anyway.

She turned her phone off when she reached her house, grateful that it was late enough for her to go to her room for the night without question.

Blake spent the next day in her room. She felt terrible for leaving Yang’s apartment the way she had. She had just needed to _think._ She knew if she turned on her phone right now there would be multiple messages waiting, she couldn’t face the questions she still had no answers for.

That evening there was a knock at the front door. It was the first time in weeks Blake didn’t make a move to answer it. She could hear muffled voices in the hallway from where she was curled up on the bed, failing at distracting herself by drawing.

The door closed and Blake could just hear the footsteps coming up the stairs. She quickly moved to her desk and collected herself a little, assuming it would be Ilia or Sun to check on her. Instead she heard a knock at her bedroom door, instantly ruling out either possibility.

“Blake? It’s me, I just wanted to talk to you. Please?”

Weiss.

She was the last person Blake had expected to show up at her door. She turned in her seat to face the door and took a breath, prepared for any judgement Weiss had for her.

“The door is open, come in.”

There was a moment of hesitation before Weiss carefully opened the door, closed it behind her and took a seat at the edge of Blake’s bed.

“I’m sorry for dropping in like this. I would say I should have called but from what Sun has said you haven’t been the easiest to contact.”

“I’m sorry I –

Weiss held a hand up to stop her.

“I’m not here to get an apology from you, or to demand anything. I just know Yang is hurt and wouldn’t come here and get the full story herself. She hasn’t said much about whatever happened.”

Blake couldn’t meet Weiss’s eyes. But she knew she was done avoiding what was going on. She’d just be hurting Yang, and herself more by keeping it bottled up.

“It’s a long story, and it might sound crazy.”

“I have time, and I have spent a lot of time around Ruby Rose, I’m prepared for unbelievable stories.”

Blake nodded. She finally looked up at Weiss. Weiss offered her a small reassuring smile but waited for Blake to talk again. She could probably tell just how uncomfortable and unsure Blake was about all of this.

“So, I should probably start by explaining what I can do. But this whole mess, it started with a birthday present.”

Blake explained all of it. She hesitated once or twice, having to pause for a moment before telling parts of the stories. She was amazed mostly by how calm Weiss remained throughout the whole retelling. She mostly nodded along and only interrupted with an occasional question.

“You don’t seem shocked.”

“I’m not. And it’s not just because Yang had some weird things happening with her too, but I think anyone who saw you two together over the last few weeks, wouldn’t be shocked that you have…history.”

“It’s not _our_ history though. Our story only started a month ago, I tried to not think about it, but I couldn’t help feeling like it was decided for us.”

“Feeling like you don’t have control over your own path in life is scary, believe me, I know. But just because you know past outcomes, possibilities, it doesn’t mean anything is set in stone. If it was, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re afraid that the visions you had are forcing you into a decision, right? But you have already gone against that. You chose to walk away when you got scared or nervous or whatever you want to call it. If you choose now, to go talk to Yang and fix things, it doesn’t mean you two will magically have the perfect relationship or never fall for someone else. Just because what you saw is possible, doesn’t mean it’s _easy_. You can fight, you can leave, your choices are still yours.”

“But, how do I know that what I saw wasn’t supposed to be a warning? Not everything I saw was sunshine and rainbows.”

“And what is? It’s a risk, just like anything else in life, you just got a little glimpse of these other lives, that’s not the whole story, I can almost guarantee there were some cracks in that perfect picture.”

Blake opened her mouth to continue arguing but closed it after a moment. She was all out of fears and excuses. She knew that Weiss was making sense, she knew she was probably right too. Her shoulders slumped, she suddenly just felt exhausted. She just about managed a nod in response to what Weiss had said.

“You’re still on the guest list you know. For the Gala I mean. Talk to Yang, you both deserve that, then come over and help me get everyone into a car on time so my parents don’t kill me. We’d all still like to see you there.”

She watched Weiss get up and leave, closing her bedroom door behind her. She had so much to consider, and decisions to make, but the one thought that was coming through clearer than any was, she was glad Yang had friends like Weiss looking out for her.

She gave herself the day. One day to think it all over, to write and scrap one hundred different texts and conversations. They never seemed like enough, and she couldn’t even begin to predict Yang’s responses.

The next morning, she finally turned her phone back on. Ilia and Sun had called and texted multiple times. She could tell by the progression from casual conversation to worried “Are you okay? Do you want me to come over?”, that they had heard or at least pieced together what had happened. She messaged them first, it gave her a few more minutes before messaging Yang, and was a lot less daunting.

When she finally made herself press send on the message that she had taken an hour to craft, she threw her phone to the other side of her bed. She didn’t expect a quick reply from Yang, if she got one at all. She couldn’t blame Yang if she didn’t answer. Blake hadn’t exactly handled things well.

As usual, Yang responded quickly. Even when she had every reason to not want to talk to her, Yang didn’t make her feel guilty or ask questions.

It took another three days for Yang’s crazy work schedule to ease off enough for them to meet properly. Blake had gone over what she wanted to say in her head a thousand times. She stood outside Yang’s apartment early that morning, both of their usual tea and coffee orders in hand. She hoped the drinks weren’t getting too cold as she hesitated at the steps to her door.

Logically, she knew Yang was likely going to be her understanding and supportive self. That didn’t stop part of Blake’s mind whispering _but what if she isn’t_. She had decided it didn’t matter. Either way, Yang deserved this conversation, they both did.

Weiss and Ruby quickly disappeared after a brief hello to Blake. She appreciated the attempt at normalcy. 

Yang was sitting at the kitchen island, hands wrapped around a cup of coffee. She looked tired, her shoulders were slightly slumped and the circles around her eyes were a little darker than usual. Blake hoped it was just her crazy work schedule imposing on her sleep.

Yang pulled the seat beside her away from the counter in a silent offer to Blake, here eyes followed her as she sat down. Yang silently slid a cup of tea Blake hadn’t noticed towards her. She could tell Yang was waiting for her to start the conversation at her own pace, the tea a small offer to lesson some of the tension.

With her eyes trained on the tea on front of her, Blake took a steadying breath before speaking.

“I think the obvious place to start is with an apology.”

She glanced up when she noticed Yang shaking her head slightly.

“You don’t owe me anything Blake. I know we haven’t known each other long, but I’d like to think that I know enough to know that you had your reasons to leave the way you did. Something is bothering you, and if you are ready to talk about it, I’m here.”

Blake looked at Yang properly, she was met with eyes that were nothing but understanding and honest. She could get through this conversation. She wanted to tell Yang everything.

“We haven’t known each other very long. You’re right about that, but when we met, did you…did it feel like we had met before?”

Yang seemed to consider the question for a moment.

“When we met, as soon as you shook my hand, it felt different. I was trying so hard to not let my shock show on my face. It sounds weird but, it was like it wasn’t just _your_ emotions I was picking up on. Or it was, there were just too many to make sense of and far too many for just meeting a stranger for the first time. Like a flood gate opened out of nowhere. Does that make any sense?”

Blake smiled and nodded.

“It makes sense to me at least. I never told you what my ability is, what I can do. I didn’t want to talk about it until I was sure I understood what was going on. What I ended up doing was making up a thousand different worst-case scenarios and being so careful to not repeat mistakes, some of which I never even made, that I was missing the present.”

“You’ve lost me a little. What happened?”

“When we met, it wasn’t the first time I’d seen you.” Blake said carefully.

“Is this when you confess to stalking me? I thought catfishing was just an internet thing.”

Blake knew she was joking, doing what she did best to lighten to mood of the conversation.

“Why do I feel like admitting that I was your secret stalker would do nothing but boost your ego?”

“Because you clearly know me very well Belladonna.”

“No, sorry to disappoint but I was not stalking you. My abilities let me relive memories. At least that’s what they _normally_ do. It started around the time of my birthday. Certain places, certain objects, they all triggered a similar thing. I have had control over what I can do for years but, recently it has had a mind of its own. I was seeing places I’d never been, people I’d never met.”

Blake looked from her tea to Yang’s face again, trying to gage her reaction. Yang just looked a little confused if anything, but she stayed quietly listening until Blake was ready to continue.

“It started at the museum, then it happened again when my mom gave me my birthday present. You were in each one, clear as day. And we, were together in most of them, in one way or another. Some of them were like scenes from the movies Sun pretends not to like.”

“It must have really freaked you out when I walked into your birthday party that night.”

“Yeah, that is an understatement.” Blake said, laughing.

“Unfortunately, not everything I saw was sunshine and rainbows. I haven’t told you too much about me yet. There’s some stuff I’m not great at talking about yet. But, it all kind of latched onto the nightmares and honestly? I got scared.”

“What changed your mind?”

Blake glanced in the direction that Ruby and Weiss had disappeared in.

“You have some good friends looking out for you.”

She could tell by the momentary confusion on Yang’s face that her suspicions had been correct, Yang had no idea Weiss had come to talk to her.

“Well, regardless. Thank you for talking to me about it now. You don’t have to tell me anymore if you don’t want to, I just want you to know that you _can_.”

Blake reached for Yang’s hand absentmindedly.

“I know, thank you. And I do want to tell you all of it, eventually.” Blake pressed her lips to Yang’s hand lightly before releasing it.

“So,” Yang began suddenly, cheeks colouring ever so slightly. “Are you still on board for the Schnee Gala this weekend?”

“As long as I am still invited.”

“Invited? You’re practically the guest of honour!”

Blake laughed, feeling a lightness in her chest that she hadn’t felt in days. The weight of her worries finally lifting. They talked well into the evening and Blake gradually told Yang about most of the memories she had seen of them. Although she wasn’t quite ready for the nightmares, she was happy to see how invested Yang was in the stories of other realities they may have had.

Before Blake could even reach for the doorbell the door to Yang and Ruby’s apartment flew open.

“Oh, thank the gods, you’re here.”

Weiss grabbed Blake’s wrist and before she could react, she was dragged into the apartment. Weiss didn’t let go until they were standing in the living room.

The room was a mess. There were several pairs of shoes, various shawls and jackets and bits of jewellery strewn across the couch and armchairs. The kitchen island was covered in make up spilling out from three different bags and she could hear Ruby shouting from the bathroom down the hall.

“Weiss! Where are you? You said you’d help with this, so I don’t lose an eye!”

Ruby popped her head around the door. She was holding eyeliner in one hand and looked like she was nearly ready. She just needed to lose the hoodie she had thrown on over her dress and find some shoes.

“Oh, hi Blake!” Ruby smiled and gave Blake a small wave.

“Ruby Rose get back in that bathroom or so help me you will be _walking_ to the gala _in heals_.”

Ruby’s eyes widened and she quickly disappeared again.

Weiss rolled her eyes, finally letting go of Blake’s wrist as she went to follow Ruby.

Blake couldn’t help but giggle. As much as she had seen those two argue, she knew they were still close, there was a lot of love behind the ever-present frustration.

She heard a familiar laugh on the other side of the room. She turned to see Yang emerging from her bedroom. Blake’s eyes went wide. Yang was brushing through her long hair, hair pins in her mouth and feet bare. She was wearing a short white dress, it was mostly plain with a simple floral design around the neckline. She looked incredible.

It took her moment to realise that Yang had also paused to take in what Blake was wearing. She had opted for a simple suit, deciding to leave the waist coat behind at the last minute.

“You look beautiful.”

“You look amazing.”

They both said it in unison and laughed. The hair clips Yang had been holding in her mouth had fallen to the floor and Yang looked momentarily flustered.

“Need help with anything?” Blake asked, raising ne eyebrow and surprised at how calm she managed to sound despite her inability to look away from the woman in front of her.

“Hm? Oh, yes. I uh.” Yang cleared her throat and stepped back into her room quickly. When she came back, she was holding a gold chain with a purple pendant.

“Mind giving me a hand with this?”

Yang handed the necklace to Blake and turned around, pulling her hair out of the way to make it easier for Blake to close the clasp on the chain.

_It took her a moment to even realise it had happened. She wasn’t thinking about the ring she had finally taken out of the wooden box again as she helped Yang. It didn’t matter though, she was suddenly in a different room, a different reality. She was helping Yang with a necklace still, but this one was silver, and Yang’s dress was floor length and navy._

_Yang let her hair fall back behind her as Blake finished with the annoyingly small clasp on her necklace._

_“We better hurry,” Blake heard herself say. “We have survived a lot together, but I don’t want to risk the wrath of Weiss right now. It’s not every day the academy reopens.”_

_“She’ll survive.” Yang assured her. She turned to face Blake and wrapped her hands around her waist. “She knows better than to expect either of us to be anything other than fashionably late.”_

_Blake chuckled but pushed against Yang lightly, she could feel her own reluctance to leave the peacefulness of the room they were in alone._

_Just as Yang pouted at her for pushing her off, Blake noticed the necklace she had just helped Yang with. It was her ring, looped through a simple silver chain._   
  


_“You okay?”_

_Blake shook her head a little and smiled at Yang, she looked stunning and so happy._

_“Just lost in thought for a moment. Shall we?”_

_Blake held out her hand, Yang took it and laced their fingers together easily, like she had done it a million times._

Blake came back to the present suddenly. Yang had taken a step away and was now looking at her confusion and concern evident.

“It just happened again, didn’t it? Are you okay?”

Blake smiled and Yang seemed to relax instantly.

“I’m fine, it was nothing bad. You felt it?”

“Just for a moment, I couldn’t really tell what it was, but it felt…light? Want to tell me about it?”

“I will,” Blake said, smiling wider and fiddling with the ring on her finger. “one day, but for now,” She kissed Yang lightly on the cheek, “Let’s get you ready before Weiss ends up murdering both of us, shall we?”

It was nearly an hour later before everyone was ready. Blake spent most of that time helping Yang tidy the mess they had made of the apartment, which consisted largely of throwing all of Ruby’s things that had been scattered across the furniture onto her bed while she finished getting ready. Weiss was all but ready to leave them all behind by the time they were all gathered at the entry way, triple checking that they had not forgotten anything.

“Now, remember what I told you about my family. It is best to just make brief introductions when we get there and then avoid them at all costs.”

“Don’t worry Ice Queen, the last thing any of us are going to do is talk to your family too much. I’ll say hi and ask to be directed to the buffet table.” Yang said as she led the way out of her apartment.

Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. She watched Ruby nearly trip on the stairs and Blake thought she saw the moment Weiss officially gave up on the night going smoothly.

“They can embody the word disaster at times, but they mean well, and they care about you a lot. They won’t intentionally do anything too disastrous.” Blake said, she put her hand on Weiss’s shoulder reassuringly before following the others outside.

Weiss just smiled and nodded, she didn’t seem entirely convinced but hopefully she was at least a little less stressed.

They walked into the enormous hall together. It was already full of very finely dressed people. Waiting staff weaved between the crowd offering refreshments and there was a quartet playing on the other side of the room. Blake already felt out of place. Yang either felt her unease or was feeling just as out of her depths, she took Blake’s hand as they stepped into the room, weaving their fingers together.

“Don’t worry, I think I’ve already figured out three escape routes.”

Blake smiled, the tension in her shoulders easing slightly. Maybe the night wouldn’t be too hard to get through, as long as Yang was beside her.

“We should at least try the free food first. Even if the descriptions on each option will probably be a paragraph of far too many adjectives and not tell us what the thing actually is.”

They both stayed at the back of the group as Weiss briefly introduced them to her parents before waving them off.

They spent some time dancing. Parties like this were definitely not Blake’s comfort zone, but she had to admit that getting the opportunity to slow dance with Yang for a while certainly made up for it.

They tried not to laugh when they noticed Sun and Ruby trying random food on the buffet table. They seemed to be choosing for each other at random. Weiss arrived just as Ruby forced Sun to try something that he immediately regretted agreeing too. He looked ready to throw up but was trying so hard to not draw attention to them. Eventually he panicked and reached for a jug of water that was on the table. Weiss looked like she wanted to be furious with him, but Blake saw the smile she covered with her hand.

“We might not be the ones needing an escape route.” Blake said to Yang, nodding over in Sun’s direction.

“We better not give them the chance to beat us to it then.”

Yang smirked and pulled Blake towards the buffet table on the other side of the room.

“Take whatever looks good, or at least interesting enough to be worth the risk.”

Yang handed her a few napkins and the two of them got to work trying to subtly take as much food as they could.

Yang led the way to the gardens. They wandered for a while, enjoying most of their smuggled goods. They spent the rest of the night exploring the gardens. Lights had been set up through the maze of hedges and statues, they were some of the only guests braving the cold evening air. It was nice to get away from the noise of the party, and to have a good excuse to stay close. Blake quickly decided that the gardens were her favourite part of Schnee manor.

They walked around without paying attention to where they were going. Eventually they started to make a game for themselves. It started with other couples who were wandering the grounds. They made up stories for them, one couple were secretly casing the manor, clearly planning a heist in the near future. Another pair were lost and had accidentally wandered into the party hoping for an open bar. When they ran out of guests, they turned their attention to the artwork scattered throughout the garden.

A while later, Blake watched Yang roll her eyes when the screen of her scroll lit up, she laughed when she saw that ‘Ice Queen’ was the caller Id. She couldn’t shake the smile from her face while Yang answered the phone, visibly disappointed that their quiet escape had been interrupted.

“We’re just out in the garden Weiss we’ll be back in soon. Of course I know the way back.”

Yang spun around in a circle, probably looking for the way they had come from.

“Ugh. We…we came from...there?”

Blake felt like she could hear the sigh Weiss let out at that. She hoped Weiss couldn’t hear the laugh she was trying to stifle. It had gotten darker while they were walking, and they were currently surrounded by tall hedges. They had been walking aimlessly and talking, she didn’t even know how much time had passed. Yang was now animatedly defending herself to Weiss on the phone and trying to figure out the directions she assumed Weiss was giving.

She knew that she should probably be a little worried, or at least a little sorry for getting Weiss mad at them. It was hard to feel either of those things right now though. The one thought that refused to fade was of her ring on a chain for Yang. They might not be there yet, but she couldn’t help but wonder. The ring was already starting to feel like it didn’t belong to her anymore, maybe never had. Was it plagiarism if you were stealing an idea from yourself?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it! Finally got to the end of this story, it's been fun. If you made it this far thank you for sticking around XD  
> Hope you enjoyed it! and hope it was worth the wait.
> 
> tumblr: @Sparksrise

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> Hope you enjoyed it.  
> The title is from '(I can't help) Falling in love with you' - Elvis (although I mostly listen to the twenty one pilots cover)  
> Any feedback is always welcome! would love to hear from ye.  
> I'm @Sparksrise on tumblr


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